Oil-Drilling in Arctic and Ecosystem-Management Plan of the Barents Sea

In the High North, The Barents Sea has large resources of petroleum and sustainable populations of fish. The international challenge lies in implementing the conservation of marine biodiversity, at the same time managing sustainable exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic region. The Norwegian government has tried to solve conflicts of interest by the making of a large scale ecosystem-based national management plan for The Barents Sea and Lofoten Islands. The national goals are sustainable use of petroleum, fishery resources and conservation of the structure of the maritime ecosystem. In this paper, I present an empirical case study of Norwegian national decision-making in ecosystem-based management of The Barents Sea. This new system of planning is implemented as the second sea area in the world. Australia has implemented a large ecosystem management plan at the east-coast with the Great Barrier Reef. In the paper, I discuss in a critical perspective of sociology of knowledge the social effects of the new environmental policy and environmental institutions of problem-solving of management of large sea area in the Arctic area. In the paper I want to investigate the social effects of the development of national planning of the sea ecosystems in the Arctic area. The question is: Does the government eco-system management planning of the Barents Sea provide a suitable institutional framework for solving the social conflicting interests between oil-drilling and conservation of nature in the Norwegian societies?